To San Bernardino, Obama’s Gun Plan Goes Too Far or Falls Short

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Lavinia Johnson, the executive director of the Inland Regional Center in California, spoke on tighter security measures at the complex where 14 people died in a mass shooting in December.CreditCreditNick Ut/Associated Press

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The fear comes up in discussions in line at the movies, where a group of mothers say there are too many guns on the streets for them to feel safe. For others, the mass shooting that killed 14 people here last month has prompted a rush to buy a gun for the first time, suddenly convincing them that only a firearm can protect them.

But on one point, many people here seem to be in agreement: President Obama’s latest plan to expand background checks and law enforcement for some gun sales would do little to stop mass shootings of the kind that shattered this city’s sense of security.

“I’m now considering getting a gun,” said Dondi Abarca, 43, a county employee. “Times are changing, and there are these situations that are happening.”

In a city as diverse as this one, opinions on guns run the gamut.

Like many other county employees, Trish Munoz was personally affected by the murders here. She knew one of the victims of the massacre — and one of the attackers, Syed Rizwan Farook, who worked as a county health inspector.

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A makeshift memorial on a chain-link fence outside the Inland Regional Center, where 14 people were killed last month.CreditMonica Almeida/The New York Times

But outside a memorial service on Monday commemorating the shooting, Ms. Munoz, 44, scowled at the mention of Mr. Obama’s plan, which includes a requirement that anyone who makes a living selling firearms register as a licensed gun dealer and conduct background checks.

“It violates our constitutional rights,” Ms. Munoz said. “And it distracts from what the real problems are.” No gun laws could have stopped the attack, she said, and certainly not the ones the president is proposing.

Across town, Catherine Barragan, 49, said gun control had been a frequent topic of discussion with her friends over the last month. She applauded the president’s efforts, adding that she would support getting all guns off the streets.

“There are too many loopholes,” Ms. Barragan, an administrator at a car auction, said.

But she agreed that the latest measures would not be enough to prevent another major attack. “It won’t prevent something like what happened,” she said.

This week, the office where the Dec. 2 shooting took place reopened, a milestone in San Bernardino’s efforts to resume life as normal. But as Mr. Obama spoke on Tuesday and listed the mass shootings during his tenure — suggesting his resolve to try to slow, if not stop, the barrage — reminders of the attack here remained hard to avoid.

At the corner outside the reopened office, a makeshift memorial of flags and flowers commemorates the victims. And the area where the two attackers — Mr. Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik — were ultimately killed is scarred by bullet holes after a shootout with the police in which hundreds of rounds were fired.

Jim Mulvihill, a city councilman, said many in the community were still trying to figure out why the attack had happened here.

Mr. Mulvihill said he believed the president’s gun control measures did not go far enough; an outright ban on assault weapons might have made a difference in the attack last month, he said, but there would have been no way to keep legal weapons out of Mr. Farook’s and Ms. Malik’s hands.

“It’s a young married couple with a baby, a good job,” he said. “Where’s the tip-off?”

But Mr. Mulvihill said this area had responded like much of the country, which has had a surge in firearm sales over the last month. “There has been a run on gun shops here,” he said.

One of those considering buying a gun for the first time was Robert Gonzalez. He denounced the president’s executive order as an encroachment on the Second Amendment that would do little to prevent gun violence.

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Shedding tears over the 2012 deaths of children in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the president announced executive actions he will take on gun laws.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

“I want a gun,” Mr. Gonzalez, 34, said, adding that he now felt he needed one to keep his family safe. “I’ll probably have to hurry up and try to get one fast now.”

Henry Nickel, another city councilman, said residents’ concerns about security had a number of potential causes. But the surge in demand for guns, he said, reflects a nationwide loss of confidence that the government will protect people.

“Our city has endured some very difficult times: We’re going through bankruptcy, escalating crime, dwindling police,” Mr. Nickel said. “People are doing what they can to make sure they are properly defending themselves.”

While Ms. Abarca, the county employee, was considering buying a gun, she said she supported the president’s executive order because she did not see it as an infringement on her own right to own a firearm — a testament to just how modest many gun control opponents consider the move. “Those who sell them should definitely be regulated,” she said.

She added, however, that more access to guns, not more restrictions, might halt the run of mass shootings in recent years that the president talked about during his speech on Tuesday.

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The Republican presidential candidate said the executive actions on gun control ordered by President Obama were “not worth the paper they’re printed on.”CreditCreditEric Thayer for The New York Times

“It being a gun-free zone may not have been a smart choice,” she said of the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place.

For advocates of gun control, the prospect of even greater access to guns was frightening.

At the city library Tuesday morning, Rose Rangel, 58, said tougher background checks could stop some mass shootings, even if they might not have stopped the one here.

“Maybe it would be harder to just go out there and start shooting,” she said. “There are so many guns out there. We don’t even know who they belong to.”

Ms. Barragan, the auction administrator, said she did not think more background checks would have much effect. At least as afraid of the day-to-day violence in this city as of another mass shooting, she said she wanted to find a way to get rid of more guns.

“If everybody carries a gun, people are still fighting in the street,” Ms. Barragan said. “It’s too easy for the wrong person to get one.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: Skepticism Prevails in San Bernardino After President’s Announcement. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe